Hearing delayed for Bluffton man suing town over seized guns

Prosecutors have delayed a hearing to deny a Bluffton man weapons seized from his home after an hours-long standoff in September.

The 14th Circuit solicitor’s office needs more time to secure testimony, said Daniel Brownstein, a spokesman.

14th Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone submitted a motion in October asking the court to declare Anthony Valentino, 35, mentally unfit to claim his weapons. He sought permission for the Bluffton Police Department to dispose of or destroy the weapons, which include several handguns, a sniper rifle, an assault rifle and a shotgun.

Officers took the weapons after responding to reports from family and neighbors that Valentino, apparently drunk, was threatening to kill himself, was pleading for his girlfriend to suffer and die after walking out on him and warning that he’d take “take a couple of people with him” if police responded, according to the search warrant.

The ensuing standoff ended with a peaceful surrender and a medical examination at Beaufort Memorial Hospital that concluded Valentino posed a risk to himself or others, resulting in an order for involuntary hospitalization, according to the solicitor’s office. Valentino, who was never charged, was released days later after being diagnosed with bi-polar disorder, according to the solicitor’s office.

He filed a lawsuit Nov. 8 in U.S. District Court against the town of Bluffton and Police Chief Joey Reynolds arguing they violated his rights to due process under the Fourteenth Amendment and gun ownership under the Second Amendment by maintaining a “custom, policy, or practice” of requiring weapon owners but not others to sue for the return of their property.

Brownstein said he doesn’t know what bearing the solicitor’s hearing will have on the federal lawsuit, if any. Neither does Eric Erickson, Valentino’s attorney.

“That’s a good question, and I’m grappling with that now,” he said. “I don’t have an answer for you.”

The hearing, originally scheduled for Nov. 26, is now tentatively set for Jan. 22, Erickson said, declining comment on what this second delay says about the prosecution’s case.

“I hate to guess anything, because I really don’t know what they’re doing with their motion,” he said. “I just want to get this case heard at the federal level, and why Duffie wants to bring action at the county level I don’t know.”

Erickson said last month that he’s modeling the federal suit after a recently settled Rhode Island case won by the ACLU.

In the Rhode Island case, police in the city of Cranston seized weapons on a rescue call to the house of a man feared suicidal but later cleared of those tendencies.